Dunlap's Legacy at the Society Jay Last Secures Innovation at AAS
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Spring 2020 Number 99 American Antiquarian ALMANAC Society Jay Last Secures Innovation at AAS with Landmark Gift ith a transformational gift of $8 million—the largest in the Society’s history—philanthropist andW collector Jay Last has secured the future of innovation at the American Antiquarian Society by creating a permanent fund for new initiatives. Last, a Society member based in Los Angeles, has been a supporter of AAS for more than thirty years. Previous gifts to the Society from Last and his wife, Deborah, seeded the Last Initiatives, which support significant efforts to expand the Society’s capacity to carry out its mission, including activities that fall outside of the Society’s current financial Allegheny River at Warren, Penn., chromolithograph (New York: resources. The Last Initiatives include expanding the Knapp & Co., ca. 1880). Gift of Jay Last. use of new technology, extending the Society’s national reach, and improving access to the collections through new approaches to cataloging, as well as a range of special projects. Jay Last continues to give AAS wide latitude to choose how to spend these funds, reflecting his strong belief in the Society’s mission. He noted, “I’m delighted to make this gift, and hope that it may persuade others to follow in my footsteps and support the Society.” (continued on page 4) A Long Goodbye: Dunlap’s Legacy at the Society s Ellen S. Dunlap, the seventh president of AAS, prepares for retirement in October, she leaves behind a rich history of accomplishments.A The first woman to hold the position in the more than two centuries since AAS was founded, Dunlap focused her tenure on making the Society and its collections more accessible, both to scholars and to the public. During her twenty-eight years of leadership, Dunlap developed a vision for the Society that allowed anyone interested in the early American story to explore the collections and engage with the AAS community, leading to the development of a strong digital presence, expanded programming, and myriad capital improvements. Early in her presidency, Dunlap positioned AAS to take advantage of new digital technologies. “Digitization was the tsunami that arrived during my tenure,” she said. “In the early 1990s I was aware as a research librarian that it was an opportunity and a responsibility. I saw that the Society needed to be a leader if we wanted our vast collection to be accessible to everyone.” (continued on pages 2-4) (A Long Goodbye . continued from page 1) To that end, Dunlap carved out dedicated staff time and forged partnerships to make AAS materials broadly available. As a result, nearly two hundred thousand images of collection material have been produced in-house and are freely accessible through links in the Society’s online catalog. Millions more images of collection material are available through subscription databases, which off-site users at subscribing institutions can access in full-text searchable form. Since 2005, licensing agreements with database publishers have earned more than $15 million in revenue to support collection purchases, capital improvements, and staff initiatives. Dunlap also concentrated on expanding AAS’s already strong cataloging efforts. Since her arrival, the number of records in the Society’s online catalog has more than tripled, making it easier for researchers to find material pertinent to their research. Other special cataloging projects—such as online inventories, checklists, and databases (including, most notably, Clarence, an issue-level listing of the more than two million newspapers held by AAS)—have further facilitated research and revolutionized access to the Society’s collections. Dunlap recognized the significance of the digital realm in reaching new constituencies and extended the Society’s online reach in a variety of ways. Her support of online exhibitions, illustrated inventories, blogs, and educational websites has given college and university faculty and K–12 educators a variety of resources to use with their students. The Society’s social media outlets have reached an even broader audience, including many who would not have known of the Society otherwise. “From quirky to compelling, our collections have something for everyone,” Dunlap said. And yet, when she arrived in Worcester in 1992 “not everyone at AAS had a computer and email was rudimentary,” Dunlap recalls. “I remember our first internet site; it was on the Gopher platform and had links to our catalog, information about the Society, and a link to the weather. Someone asked in jest if it was to present-day or nineteenth-century weather.” Dunlap came to Worcester after working in rare book libraries in her native Texas and in Philadelphia. “Part of my interest in history is celebrating coincidences,” she said. During her early days at AAS, she experienced one of those coincidences for herself. While touring the stacks of bound newspapers in Antiquarian Hall, she wondered if the newspaper in her father’s hometown in Texas was part of the collection. Not only did AAS hold issues of the newspaper, but “the copy I happened upon contained the obituary of my great-grandfather,” Dunlap recalled, confirming her conviction that AAS was the right place for her. The synergy Dunlap felt with the Society began as early as her interview with the presidential search committee. She struck a chord with them when she observed, “I don’t think an institution can hold itself aloof from a community and expect support from it. You have to have a relationship with the community.” From the beginning, she has made the Society’s relationship with Worcester a priority. Dunlap and her team expanded free programs for the general public and initiated collaborations with the Worcester Public Schools and other surrounding K–12 districts, providing services to an entirely new constituency for the Society. Those K–12 programs grew and AAS began to offer services Top: Headshot of Ellen Dunlap from 1992 at the start of her presidency. Right: Dunlap leading the Society’s annual meeting in 2000. Bottom: Dunlap in December 1992 at a Worcester Chamber of Commerce breakfast. 2 to educators all over the country. Outside AAS, Dunlap cofounded the Worcester Cultural Coalition, a unique public-private partnership between City Hall and more than seventy cultural institutions; served as a board member and chair of Mass Humanities; and has been active in the Greater Worcester Community Foundation. Dunlap has also made the Society a welcoming place for researchers. Before she joined the staff, undergraduates were required to obtain a letter of introduction from a professor in order to use the library. Dunlap removed those barriers, opening the library to anyone working on a project that would benefit from using AAS’s collections, regardless of their educational status. Under her leadership, the fellowship program has also flourished. Funds were secured for many new fellowships, including the AAS- Mellon Distinguished Scholar in Residence, the Hench Post-Dissertation Fellowship, the Jay and Deborah Last Fellowships, and the Creative and Performing Artists and Writers Fellowships (see page 12). “Researchers at AAS have been able to learn so much from other researchers,” Dunlap said. “Past fellows and readers alike have created a community of support and intellectual exchange, rather like an alumni network.” In addition, a culture of service has become an AAS hallmark. “We consistently hear from people who are here to do research that in addition to our amazing collection, our staff is so generous with help and assistance,” Dunlap said. Dunlap explained that her management style is “based on empowering staff and helping them define their own roles. I put my trust in our staff members, who are experts in areas that are not my expertise. They’re experts in everything from curating and conservation to Instagram and Twitter.” The access that Dunlap has facilitated over the course of her tenure is writ large in the capital improvements that she has overseen for the Society, raising more than $35 million to advance critical components of the Society’s mission. In 1994, the entrance to Antiquarian Hall was renovated to make it ADA accessible. A stack addition completed in 2002 doubled the Society’s capacity for collection growth and improved working conditions for curatorial and cataloging staff. A 2008 renovation of the main fellows’ residence, Reese House, significantly increased the Society’s capacity to host visiting scholars, which was further augmented when a second historic house on Regent Street was acquired in 2016. The landscaped parking lot on Park Avenue was opened in 2015, reducing demand for on-street parking in the neighborhood. The culmination of these capital improvements was the 2019 addition to Antiquarian Hall, which included the technology-enhanced Learning Lab to extend the Society’s reach, an upgraded and expanded Conservation Studio, and a new building-wide, state- of-the-art HVAC system. “The big window in the center of our new addition opens the Society to the community, enabling people to see what’s going on inside,” Dunlap said. (continued on page 4) Top: Dunlap at the Society’s semiannual meeting in 1996 in Boston with actor Neil Gustafson as Isaiah Thomas and Senator Harriette Chandler. Left, middle: Dunlap in 1993 with John Hench; Andrew Brown, director of humanities publishing at Cambridge University Press; and History of the Book in America general editor David Hall. Right, middle: Dunlap in 2001 with the “Stack D” dated cornerstone. Left: Dunlap in 2018 with stone date plate for the latest addition 3 to Antiquarian Hall. (A Long Goodbye . continued from page 3) Among Dunlap’s proudest moments was accepting the National Humanities Medal on behalf of the Society from President Barack Obama at the White House in 2014. The award—which had never before been given to an independent research library—honored the Society’s efforts to “safeguard the American story” and engage the public with history.